Wed June 19 - 17:00 (Stonehenge & Bath)

Stonehenge was very fascinating, especially because much of the history was still surrounded in mystery since it was built before written documents. The construction started before 3000 BC and finished until around 1700 BC (roughly). I couldn't get too close to it since half of the original stones were taken by people in the last few hundred years. It was incredible to think how the stones came from Wales on boats and then travelled over 200 miles on land to where they were. I got a bunch of pictures.

Carroll had told me to keep an eye out for scones with clotted cream while I was in England. Stonehenge had a food stand by the gift shop that served scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. It was very tasty.

We spent an hour there and then decamped for the City of Bath. On our way to Bath, we drove through the countryside and through Salsbury Plains, which is where many British military barracks are. Salsbury Plains is the location for the military tank training.

The tour guide told us a story of how he went to some of the local towns (that the tour buses drove passed) to find out about the local culture. He asked them what the people and children would do for fun. They said that the military informs them of when they are having tank trainings so they would go and watch tanks blow things up.

All of the old buildings in Bath were made from a local limestone which they called "Bathstone". It has a honeycomb color and the color contrasts beautifully with the lush green valley. The area of Bath has been a very posh area since the Georgian Kings (George I, George II, George III, George IV) built it up as a vacation city from nearby London.

It is now a world heritage sight due to the Greek & Roman influenced architecture. It looks much more like Continental Europe than England because of the architecture. The Roman Baths were important too, but they weren't the main reason for the city becoming a world heritage site. The Royal Crescent and the Circus are some of the best examples of the architecture as well as the Pulteney Bridge.
The Circus

Royal Crescent

Pulteney Bridge

I walked around the city after our funny and informative tour guide pointed out the main attractions like the Royal Crescent. Our tour guide said that one of the (townhouse like) units in the Royal Crescent sold for £3,000,000 a few years ago. Most of the units are separated by flats on each floor. Another interesting story was that of the Yellow Door.

He told us about how one of the houses in the Royal Crescent had a yellow door and he never knew why. Every other door in the Royal Crescent and in the Circus was painted white. On one of his tours, a lady on the tour told him she knew the reason for this. He couldn't validate her story as truth but it makes for a good story nonetheless. She stated that a decade ago, the city board was tired of the tour buses driving through the Royal Crescent and was annoyed that many people who were tourists would park along it. They said that they were banning the buses from being able to drive through. They also said that they were going to painted a yellow double-line on the side of the road lining the Royal Crescent. One of the Royal Crescent residents was outraged and complained that the Royal Crescent road was built in the 1600s and still had the original stones. She told them if they painted yellow double-lines on the road then she would paint her door yellow. The city board told her she was not allowed to because her house was registered as an official landmark and it had to be uniform with the other houses. The city board went through with painting the yellow double-lines and consequently, the lady painted her door yellow. The city board never brought up any charges since they had defiled a landmark as well.

I went into Highgrove, a shop owned by Prince Charles. Apparently, Jamie Olivier has a restaurant in Bath somwhere.

I ate lunch and then met back up to go to the Roman Baths.

They had an interesting museum and the Baths were very neat. The main pool (above) was inside the original building. They reconstructed the columns for this pool but left it without a roof. The water is green because of the algae that grows from the bath being outside. They do not allow you to touch the water in this bath.
I got to taste some of the fresh spring water, which is filled with minerals and is very healthy for you. It just tasted like warm, mineral water. Not bad, but not good either. It was amazing that the water system the Romans built almost 2000 years ago still work today. The audio guide talked about how advanced they were as a civilization and juxtaposed it with the fact that they would slaughter animals for sacrifices to the gods. They were technologically advanced and yet so primitive. Many artifacts have been found at the sight, including coins, statues, and ruins of the buildings. These clues gave architects and historians a good idea of what the Roman Baths would have looked like when they were finished almost 2000 years ago. The Roman Baths were the largest buildings in England at the time they were built. It was funny to learn that Romans hated being stationed in England due to the wet and cold weather. The naturally hot springs in Bath drew the Romands to that area. It is the only hot springs in all of England.

On our drive back to London we passed through part of Cotswold and saw the beautiful countryside. We saw many sheep from Cotswold, which are known to produce some of the finest wool in the world.